Remember this motto to live by: "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO- HOO what a ride!'"

WOW!!! I was a little surprised by this one... I honestly figured he would try to stick it out longer.

The whole thing with him trying to manipulate Ashcroft when he was ill really turned my stomach. I didn't like Gonzales much to start with--I'm from Texas and have seen the kind of crap he did on the Texas Supreme Court and as Sec. of State for Texas.

I hope the door doesn't hit him on the way out.

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

"Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question is how." -- Edward T. McMahon, The Conservation Fund

There's little to be joyous about over the next year and a half with Bush in office. Who knows what kind of damage he will do between now and then. Seeing Gonzales go down provides at least some joy to an otherwise bleak future for this country. I for one will eagerly await hearing all the new revelations and details about what an incompetant piece of crap Gonzales was and all the illegal/political activities and policy making he partook in to further Bush's aggresive agenda of secrecy.

Oddly, it's not because of the attorney firings. Too much has been made of this. I don't think it was a fair or most ethical way to treat the US attorneys, but I'm not inclined to label it some kind of constitutional crisis.

Like I said, I took issue with him early on because of stuff he was involved with in Texas. However, it was the manipulation of Ashcroft over warrantless wiretaps that really set me off (not because of the wiretaps, but because of how he used unethical means to try and get what he wanted). Other reasons:

Executive Order 13233 that attempted to limit FOIA requests after 9/11

He was an early advocate of the Patriot Act

Tried to prevent Energy Task Force documents from being reviewed

Seemed completely unaware of anything going on in the Justice Department

argued hebeas corpus was not granted in Constitution (why would they prohibit taking it away if it was implicly in the Constitution)

failing to investigate the Texas Youth Commission allegations of misconduct (of which there were TONS of complaints, but no effort made to investigate)

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

I think that Suburb Repairman has given acceptable reasons not to like him… and that the firing of attorneys is not one of them, that there was nothing illegal about it. What should have happened is all the liberal judges should have been fired when Bush took office… that is how Clinton did it and no one yelled.

I don’t think that Gonzalez has done that great if a job and there are several situations that I felt hurt his career. While I don’t think that he was the demonic anti freedom that everyone paints him to be, I think that he was not the best person for the job.

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. Time makes more converts than reason." - Thomas Paine Common Sense.

I think that Suburb Repairman has given acceptable reasons not to like him… and that the firing of attorneys is not one of them, that there was nothing illegal about it. What should have happened is all the liberal judges should have been fired when Bush took office… that is how Clinton did it and no one yelled.

I don’t think that Gonzalez has done that great if a job and there are several situations that I felt hurt his career. While I don’t think that he was the demonic anti freedom that everyone paints him to be, I think that he was not the best person for the job.

His big mistake was not simply saying: "US Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President and the President was not pleased with them, if you want to know why, ask him".

Also, I do recall that Clinton fired ALL of the US attorneys when he took office in 1993 and was not challenged on it.

Anyways, it looks right now like Gonzalez' (the FIRST Latino in that post, remember?) replacement will be a Wisconsinite!

Normally, Jeff and I are on the opposite ends of the discussion when it comes to politics....but I have to agree with him here. The attorney firings are not what I would consider deal breakers for the AG. There are plenty of other things (which SR mentioned) that are far worse IMO than the firings of the attorneys.

Am I glad he's resigning? Sure. But the gloating and piling on are pointless I think.

"Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question is how." -- Edward T. McMahon, The Conservation Fund

Being a person with no political affiliation, I could care less about the Attorney General leaving. Most of the hype on him was generated for political gain by the Democratic Party establishment and the President used him as a pawn in his desire to gain more power in the hands of the executive branch. Politics is not a pretty business.